Fantasy Sports Draft System and Method

ABSTRACT

A fantasy sports draft system for a fantasy league with plurality of teams, the fantasy sports draft system comprising: a plurality of bidding indicators; a nominator indicator; a large roster form configured such that information contained on the large roster form is legible from at least about five feet away; a bye week form configured such that information contained on the bye week form is legible from at least about five feet away; and a regular roster form. A method of holding a fantasy sports draft comprising: determining a nominating order of teams; displaying a bye week form and a large roster form for all teams to view; displaying a nominator indicator by the current nominator team; nominating a player to auction by current nominator team; displaying a bidding indicator by teams bidding on the player; tipping the bidding indicator on its side by teams not bidding on player; winning of auction of player by a team; filling in large roster form row for auctioned player; determining whether the auction is over; moving nominator indicator to next nominator team, if auction is not over; filling in regular roster form with information from large roster form, if auction is over; and copying filled in regular roster form and distributing copies of the filled in roster form to all teams.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to systems and methods for conductingfantasy sports auctions and/or drafts and, more particularly, to asystem and method for conducting a fantasy sports auction and/or draftin which participants are present in a single location and team rostersgenerated as a result of the auction and/or draft are visuallydisplayed.

BACKGROUND

Fantasy sports leagues are known to fans of major sports leagues such asthe National Football League, National Basketball Association, and thelike. Typically, a league is created having a plurality of participatingteams. The participants (i.e., team owners) gather before the start ofthe corresponding league season to draft and/or auction players fortheir fantasy teams. Often, such gatherings occur in a lounge or barsetting, where participants can relax, drink, joke, and in general enjoythe draft experience.

The rules can vary from fantasy league to fantasy league. In general,each participating team is permitted to draft a certain number ofplayers, at certain positions, to create a roster. For example, atypical fantasy football team might have two quarterbacks, four runningbacks, six receivers, two kickers, and two special teams.

With respect to the conduct of the draft, this can occur in one ofseveral ways. For example, there can be a “straight” draft, in whichplayer selection proceeds according to an established order until eachteam's full roster is picked. An auction draft proceeds differently. Inan auction draft, teams are allowed to spend a prescribed sum of moneyto assemble their team, which is typically referred to as a salary cap.Players are then auctioned, with participants purchasing desiredplayers. Each player picked and the amount bid for that player countsagainst the salary cap.

With respect to a straight draft, one challenge is for participants tokeep track of players selected, so that time is not wasted choosing aplayer who has already been drafted. With respect to auction drafts,there is still a need to track players who have been selected, and alsoto track the amount of money that participants have spent and have leftto spend. In the manner that live drafts are commonly conducted,manually tracking such information can be difficult.

Therefore a fantasy sports draft system and method that overcomes theabove described and other disadvantages is needed.

SUMMARY

The disclosed invention relates to a fantasy sports draft system for afantasy league with plurality of teams, the fantasy sports draft systemcomprising: a plurality of bidding indicators; a nominator indicator; alarge roster form configured such that information contained on thelarge roster form is legible from at least about five feet away; a byeweek form configured such that information contained on the bye weekform is legible from at least about five feet away; and a regular rosterform.

The disclosed invention also relates to a method of holding a fantasysports draft comprising: determining a nominating order of teams;displaying a bye week form and a large roster form for all teams toview; displaying a nominator indicator by the current nominator team;nominating a player to auction by current nominator team; displaying abidding indicator by teams bidding on the player; tipping the biddingindicator on its side by teams not bidding on player; winning of auctionof player by a team; filling in large roster form row for auctionedplayer; determining whether the auction is over; moving nominatorindicator to next nominator team, if auction is not over; filling inregular roster form with information from large roster form, if auctionis over; and copying filled in regular roster form and distributingcopies of the filled in roster form to all teams.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will be better understood by those skilled in thepertinent art by referencing the accompanying drawings, where likeelements are numbered alike in the several figures, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bidding indicator;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a nominator indicator;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a large roster form configured for fantasyfootball;

FIG. 4 is a front view of a large roster form configured for fantasybaseball;

FIG. 5 is a front view of a regular roster form;

FIG. 6 is a front view of a bye week form; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of the disclosedmethod.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosed fantasy sports draft system comprises several parts. Thefirst is a bidding indicator 10 for each team in the fantasy league, asshown in FIG. 1. The bidding indicator 10 comprises a base 14, a flagmember 18 and a flag pole member 22 attached to the base 14 and flagmember 18. The bidding indicator 10 may have a height H_(flag) of about6 inches to about 24 inches. However, one of ordinary skill in the artwill recognize that the bidding indicator 10 need not be limited to onlythe shape of a small flag pole and base, but may include a variety ofother means that will allow a user to notify his fantasy sports leaguethat he intends to make a bid, such means include, but are not limitedto: a sign; an electronic display; a representation of a team mascot.There will be one bidding indicator 10 for each team in the league. Thebidding indicator 10 may have a team name and/or team logo 26 printed,written, or have a decal applied on the flag member 18. The biddingindicator may be made out of any suitable material, including but notlimited to: plastic, molded plastic, wood, fiberglass, metal, paper, andcardboard.

FIG. 2 shows a nominator indicator 30. The nominator indicator 30comprises a base 34, a flag member 38 and a flag pole member 42 attachedto the base 34 and flag member 38. The nominator indicator 30 may have aheight H_(nom) of about 6 inches to about 30 inches, and should betaller than the bidding indicator, preferably, but not necessarily,taller by about 2 inches. However, one of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize that the nominator indicator 30 need not be limited to onlythe shape of a small flag pole and base, but may include a variety ofother means that will allow a user to notify his fantasy sports leaguethat he intends to make a nomination, such means include, but are notlimited to: a sign; an electronic display; a representation of a teammascot. There will be one nominator indicator 30 used for the fantasysports draft system. The nominator indicator 30 may have a white flagmember 38 and/or the word “Nominator” or some variant thereof printed,written, or have a decal applied on the flag member 38. The nominatorindicator 30 may be made out of any suitable material, including but notlimited to: plastic, molded plastic, wood, fiberglass, metal, paper, andcardboard.

FIG. 3 shows a large roster form 46. The roster form contains a spacefor a team name, and team number. There are a plurality of columns androws on the large roster form 46. In this embodiment, the columns arelabeled “Salary”, “Position”, “Player”, “Team”, and “Salary Cap”. Underthe position column, each position on a fantasy sports team may belisted. For example, for a fantasy football team, the positions mayinclude three (3) quarterbacks (“QB”), two (2) kickers (“K”), four (4)running backs (“RB”), five (5) wide receivers (“WR”), two (2)defense/special teams (“D/ST”), and one (1) yards at catch (“Y/C”). Ofcourse, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that thepositions that make up a roster for each team may be modified accordingto the rules of that fantasy sports league. In addition, the columns maybe configured to contain other information to a fantasy league.

FIG. 4 shows a large roster form 48, wherein this roster form is for usewith a fantasy football league, whereas the roster form 46 shown in FIG.3 is for use with a fantasy football league. The roster form contains aspace for a team name, and team number. There are a plurality of columnsand rows on the large roster form 46. In this embodiment, the columnsare labeled “Salary”, “Position”, “Player”, “Team”, and “Salary Cap”.Under the position column, each position on a fantasy sports team may belisted. Thus, since this roster form 48 is for use with baseball, thepositions may include one (1) first baseman (“1B”), one (1) secondbaseman (“2B”), one (1) third baseman (“3B”), one (1) shortstop (“SS”),one (1) catcher (“C”), three (3) outfielders (“OF”), six (6) utilityplayers (“UT”), five (5) standing pitchers (“SP”), five (5) reliefpitchers (“RP”), and three (3) reserve positions.

The large roster form shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 should be large enough sothat the forms 46, 48 and the information on the forms can be seen byvarious people in a single room. That is, a person who is about 5 feetto 20 feet away would normally be able to read most of the informationon the large roster form. The large roster forms 46, 48 may have aheight “H” and a width “W”. The height H may be from about 15 inches toabout 60 inches, and preferably about 30 inches. The width W may be fromabout 10 inch to about 40 inches, and preferably about 20 inches. Ofcourse, the roster form may be modified so that it can read from evenlonger distances away, such as about 40 feet, or 80 feet or more away.

FIG. 5 shows a regular roster form 50. This form is similar to the largeroster form 48 shown in FIG. 4, except that it is smaller for thepersonal use of each team owner/captain/manager to fill in and/or forthe league commissioner to fill in at the end of the auction/draft anddistribute to the teams. The regular roster forms 50 may have a height“H” and a width “W”. The height H may be from about 5.5 inches to about22 inches, and preferably about 11 inches. The width W may be from about4 inch to about 16 inches, and preferably about 8 inches.

FIG. 6 shows a bye week form 52. This form comprises a plurality ofcolumns and rows. One column will list each professional, college, oramateur team, and the remaining columns will list which weeks are byeweeks for each team for the sport's upcoming season. FIG. 6 shows a byeweek form 52 for a football fantasy league. Of course, the form 52 maybe modified to be used with a baseball fantasy league, or any otherfantasy sports league. The bye week form 52 should be large enough sothat the form 52 and the information on the form can be seen by variouspeople in a single room. That is, a person who is about 5 feet to 20feet away would normally be able to read most of the information on thebye week form. The bye week form 52 may have a height “H” and a width“W”. The height H may be from about 15 inches to about 60 inches, andpreferably about 30 inches. The width W may be from about 10 inch toabout 40 inches, and preferably about 20 inches. Of course, the bye weekform may be modified so that it can read from even longer distancesaway, such as about 40 feet, or 80 feet or more away.

The disclosed fantasy sports draft system and method maybe used forfantasy or rotisserie leagues such as fantasy football, fantasybaseball, fantasy cricket, fantasy soccer, fantasy basketball, fantasygolf, fantasy hockey, fantasy auto racing, fantasy sports stocksimulations, fantasy professional wrestling, fantasy e-sports, andfantasy congress. The disclosed fantasy sports draft system comprises: aplurality bidding indicators 10, one for each owner of a fantasy team;one nominator indicator 30; one large roster form 46; a plurality ofregular roster forms 50, one for each owner of a fantasy team; and onelarge bye week form 52. The disclosed fantasy sports draft system andmethod may be used as follows: each team owner is a given a biddingindicator 10, which the team owners will use to represent whether or northey are still in the bidding for a particular player. If they are inthe bidding, the bidding indicator 10 will be standing or held up by theteam representative, if out of the bidding the bidding indicator 10 maybe tipped on its side or withdrawn from view. Each team owner uses anominator indicator 30 when it is their turn to nominate a new player tobid on. The nominator indicator 30 may be simply stood on its base infront of the team representative, or held up by the team representative.Once they have nominated a player, they will pass the nominatorindicator 30 to the next team in order to nominate a new player to bidon. The large roster form 46 is large enough for everyone in the auctionroom to be able to see, and thus allow all teams to see what players aretaken, what salary cap is left for each team to use for their bidding.The large roster form 46 will be filled in as players are auctioned tothe various teams in the league. The regular roster form 50 will begiven to each team owner after the auction, and will have the sameinformation that is finally shown on the large roster form (after theteams have filled in their roster of players). The bye week form 52 is alarge form that is visible to all the teams in the auction room, andwill show the team owners in the auction room what players and/or teamshave which bye weeks.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart describing a method of using the disclosedfantasy sports draft system. At act 100, the nominating order of leagueteams is determined by any of a variety of means, such as but notlimited to: drawing straws, drawing cards, determined from previousseason's standings, etc. At act 104, the bye week form and large rosterform are both displayed so that all team representatives can view thetwo forms. At act 108, the current nominator (as determined by thenominating order) displays the nominator indicator. At act 112 thecurrent nominator nominates a player to be auctioned. At act 116,bidding teams display their bidding indicator. At act 120, teams notbidding and teams no longer bidding on the auctioned player turn theirbidding indicators on its side or withdraw their bidding indicators fromsight. At act 124, a team wins the auction of the player. At act 132, arow in the large roster form is filled in showing the auctioninginformation (such as the name of the player that was auctioned, the teamthat won the auction, the position of player, the winning bid {salary}amount for the player, and the amount left in the salary cap {if any}for the winning team). At query 136 it is determined whether the auctionis over (e.g. all of the teams have filled in their roster of players)or if the auction is still going on. If the auction is not over, then atact 140, the nominator indicator is moved to the next nominator team. Ifthe auction is over, then at act 144, the regular roster form is filledin with the information filled in on the large roster form. At act 148copies of the filled in roster form are made, and distributed to eachteam.

The advantages of the disclosed fantasy sports draft system is that itallows for easy determination of whose turn it is to nominate a playerand easy determination of which team is currently bidding for a player.Another advantage is that allows representatives of each team seeimportant information, such as the bye weeks, and how much salary cap isleft for each team.

It should be noted that the terms “first”, “second”, and “third”, andthe like may be used herein to modify elements performing similar and/oranalogous functions. These modifiers do not imply a spatial, sequential,or hierarchical order to the modified elements unless specificallystated.

While the disclosure has been described with reference to severalembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situationor material to the teachings of the disclosure without departing fromthe essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that thedisclosure not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed as thebest mode contemplated for carrying out this disclosure, but that thedisclosure will include all embodiments falling within the scope of theappended claims.

1. A fantasy sports draft system for a fantasy league with plurality of teams, the fantasy sports draft system comprising: a plurality of bidding indicators; a nominator indicator; a large roster form configured such that information contained on the large roster form is legible from at least about five feet away; a bye week form configured such that information contained on the bye week form is legible from at least about five feet away; and a regular roster form.
 2. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 1, wherein the large roster form is configured such that information contained on the large roster form is legible from at least about ten feet away and wherein the bye week form is configured such that information contained on the bye week form is legible from at least about ten feet away.
 3. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 1, wherein the large roster form is configured such that information contained on the large roster form is legible from at least about twenty feet away and wherein the bye week form is configured such that information contained on the bye week form is legible from at least about twenty feet away.
 4. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of bidding indicators comprises: a base; a flag pole member attached to the base; and a flag member attached to the flag pole member.
 5. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of bidding indicators has a height of about 6 inches to about 24 inches.
 6. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of bidding indicators has a height of about 12.5 inches.
 7. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 4, wherein the flag member of each bidding member has a logo displayed on the flag member corresponding to each of the plurality of teams.
 8. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 4, wherein the flag member of each bidding member has a team name on the flag member corresponding to each of the plurality of teams.
 9. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 1, wherein the nominator indicator comprises: a base; a flag pole member attached to the base; and a flag member attached to the flag pole member.
 10. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 9, wherein the nominator indicator has a height of about 6 inches to about 30 inches.
 11. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 9, wherein the nominator indicator has a height of about 15 inches.
 12. The fantasy sports draft system of claim 9, wherein the flag member is white.
 13. A method of holding a fantasy sports draft comprising: determining a nominating order of teams; displaying a bye week form and a large roster form for all teams to view; displaying a nominator indicator by the current nominator team; nominating a player to auction by current nominator team; displaying a bidding indicator by teams bidding on the player; tipping the bidding indicator on its side by teams not bidding on player; winning of auction of player by a team; filling in large roster form row for auctioned player; determining whether the auction is over; moving nominator indicator to next nominator team, if auction is not over; filling in regular roster form with information from large roster form, if auction is over; and copying filled in regular roster form and distributing copies of the filled in roster form to all teams. 